Saesee Sinker Swarm

By dadocollin, in X-Wing Squad Lists

I stumbled on the Sinker swarm (Sinker and 4 Gold Squadron torrents) relatively early and was originally running it with my fav of the Jedi, Saesee Tiin, mainly because I was bound to make movement blunders in a swarm and he gave me an out. I know the rage now is Ric + R2, but assuming one or both of those cards go up in price, I like Saesee as a future option.

You have 3 points to play with in this list after adding the 6 ships. I think the best options for Saesee are:

Heightened Perception (3)

Brilliant Evasion (3)

Calibrated Laser Targeting (3)

I’m leaning toward Calibrated with the intention of flying him with the swarm, but I’m curious to hear what others would pick (or other options I haven’t considered).

Personally, I dont find Saesee appealing in a swarm list, but with those points CLT seems like the best option.

Also, if you're looking for a ship other than Saesee, then matchstick with double tap could also be pretty decent once it comes out

3 hours ago, LeMightyASP said:

Also, if you're looking for a ship other than Saesee, then matchstick with double tap could also be pretty decent once it comes out

I'm confident Matchstick with double taps will not be affordable in a Sinker Swarm, presuming 4 torrents. An initiative 2 Rebel Y-Wing with Ion Cannon Turret (only Hyperspace Turret) and Veteran Turret Gunner is 44 points, Sinker Swarm only has 46 points to play with. For contrast, Horton Salm (who also has a reroll-based ability) is 50 points with the same upgrades. I don't expect Matchstick priced through the roof or anything, but Republic Y-Wings would need to come in VERY low price indeed to fit into the tight space of a Sinker Swarm.

4 hours ago, dadocollin said:

I stumbled on the Sinker swarm (Sinker and 4 Gold Squadron torrents) relatively early and was originally running it with my fav of the Jedi, Saesee Tiin, mainly because I was bound to make movement blunders in a swarm and he gave me an out. I know the rage now is Ric + R2, but assuming one or both of those cards go up in price, I like Saesee as a future option.

I’m leaning toward Calibrated with the intention of flying him with the swarm, but I’m curious to hear what others would pick (or other options I haven’t considered).

Calibrated Laser Targeting or R4 Astromech (to make Saesee's own maneuvers a lot more change-able) seem like the best upgrades to me. Personally, I'm not really sure that Saesee works great with a swarm. When you've got a lot of ships staying fairly tight, the benefit of changing one's position seems like it could get pretty small. However, with a lot of maneuver and position-based abilities, it kind of needs to be felt out on the board to know how good or bad it is.

Personally, I think the Jedi who fits in best with Sinker Swarm is Luminara Unduli. She can potentially save a friendly ship from dying by altering an opponent's dice. Getting one more attack can easily make a huge difference to a swarm. Luminara's ability won't always be useful depending on an opponent's tokens, but she can have a really immediate impact if an opponent can't modify their eye results.

7 hours ago, theBitterFig said:

Personally, I think the Jedi who fits in best with Sinker Swarm is Luminara Unduli. She can potentially save a friendly ship from dying by altering an opponent's dice. Getting one more attack can easily make a huge difference to a swarm. Luminara's ability won't always be useful depending on an opponent's tokens, but she can have a really immediate impact if an opponent can't modify their eye results.

Honestly, i feel like swarms have the toughest time avoiding bullseyes, so even if Lumi is the best Jedi on Sinker Swarms, I feel like she can be very situational. I think the ship that best supports the swarm would ultimately be Padme, she really isn't as ace-y as Ric or any Jedi

2 hours ago, LeMightyASP said:

Honestly, i feel like swarms have the toughest time avoiding bullseyes, so even if Lumi is the best Jedi on Sinker Swarms, I feel like she can be very situational. I think the ship that best supports the swarm would ultimately be Padme, she really isn't as ace-y as Ric or any Jedi

To be sure, Luminara isn't an Iden Versio, or even a Del Meeko. However, situational as she is, I still think she adds more than any other Jedi you can fit into the list (Obi and Ahsoka are too expensive).

I understand the concept of Padme, but I'm not sold. I know some folks onhere have reported trying her, and having her do very little. She's a lot like Heroic: always on, but having a fairly small mathematical benefit. More than half the value of a focus token is in the first eyeball you modify. On 2 dice, you'll only need the full focus over the one-die version 6% of the time, 16% of the time on 2 dice. Being a fraction of Howlrunner and a fraction of Serissu is nice in theory, but seems like she can fail. Meanwhile, Full Throttle can be awkward, and you're correct that she's less ace-y.

However, I think they're all probably fairly close, and that the difference in the final strength of the list is going to be pretty small.

52 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

To be sure, Luminara isn't an Iden Versio, or even a Del Meeko. However, situational as she is, I still think she adds more than any other Jedi you can fit into the list (Obi and Ahsoka are too expensive).

I understand the concept of Padme, but I'm not sold. I know some folks onhere have reported trying her, and having her do very little. She's a lot like Heroic: always on, but having a fairly small mathematical benefit. More than half the value of a focus token is in the first eyeball you modify. On 2 dice, you'll only need the full focus over the one-die version 6% of the time, 16% of the time on 2 dice. Being a fraction of Howlrunner and a fraction of Serissu is nice in theory, but seems like she can fail. Meanwhile, Full Throttle can be awkward, and you're correct that she's less ace-y.

However, I think they're all probably fairly close, and that the difference in the final strength of the list is going to be pretty small.

I think there's a reason people have gravitated towards Ric. Initiative 4 jedi are pretty underwhelming without 7B and padme just doesnt do enough without juke around. Ric isn't perfect, but at 45 points you're paying a good price for him.

It's a shame you can't fit Obi Wan into the sinker swarm (201 points), he is pretty flexible and his abiliy is pretty good with swarms.

Ive flown Saesee quite a bit and, personally, i love him. however i really dont think hed work with a swarm. hes only got 2 force tokens so thats only 2 dials you can change in any one turn. for me hes worked best as a wingman to an ace like obi-wan or anakin. even better if the wingman has Sense equiped. if youre playing Saesee, put an R4 droid on him (and his wingmate(s) if you can) to really open up their dials.

Now that the points are out for the new ships, I think I may try the swarm with Goji in the lead dropping mines or fused bombs.

I’m looking at adding R2D2 into mine:

BTL-B Y-wing - •R2-D2 - 43
•R2-D2 - Bucket of Bolts (35)
•C-3PO (8)

ARC-170 Starfighter - •“Sinker” - 57
•“Sinker” - Wolfpack Veteran (54)
•Clone Commander Cody (3)

V-19 Torrent Starfighter - Gold Squadron Trooper - 25
Gold Squadron Trooper - (25)

V-19 Torrent Starfighter - Gold Squadron Trooper - 25
Gold Squadron Trooper - (25)

V-19 Torrent Starfighter - Gold Squadron Trooper - 25
Gold Squadron Trooper - (25)

V-19 Torrent Starfighter - Gold Squadron Trooper - 25
Gold Squadron Trooper - (25)

Total: 200/200

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Edited by kempokid

I personally love Lumi, she wont come up every turn, but I generally get at least 3 or 4 triggers per game on average. But in my games she is normally the MVP of my Jedi Squad. Jedi in Athersprites are very fragile, and some times you just roll blanks and even the force cant save them. But as long as they dont have you in bulls eye Lumi can save them or at least shave some damage to keep them alive another turn, or some times its about resource expenditure, do they spend that focus to get the kill after you have down graded a hit to a focus and thus leaving them vulnerable to your counter attack or do they let the Jedi live and keep the focus for defense. Another note is do not underestimate the value of downgrading a critical to a hit. Athers only have 1 shield, after that crits can hurt bad, some times down grading a crit to a hit saves the ship, whether it avoids the dreaded direct hit or a mission kill crit like lose stabilize or weapons malfunction.

I also like Sasse, have not used the ability much but it has been CLUTCH when it has come up. I also find it lets me fly better due to stress reduction. With out Sasse I find my self agonizing and second guessing my dials, with Sasse around I relax and get a little more YOLO and if something terrible happens where you would drive Obi into the kill box where he would have 4 range 1 fully modded shots land on him you say hmm spend Sasse's force and go the OTHER direction even it it means landing on an asteroid... Not to site a specific example or anything. I agree I am not sure how valuable Sasse;s ability is in a swarm but it you have 3 or 4 ships I think it can be clutch. I view it as a parachute ability. When you fly you dont always need a parachute but when you need a parachute you NEED IT. Your mileage may vary, I suspect Sasse might have more value to newer less experienced players who can benefit from going ohh S*** and changing their dial more.

Now that I've looked at the Ys more, I think the best add might be Broadside with an Ion Turret. I feel like Broadside might have the best ability for the cost and could fly on either side of the swarm. Then you can add an R2 to either Sinker or Broadside and have a few points left to play with.

16 hours ago, Endureil said:

I also find it lets me fly better due to stress reduction. With out Sasse I find my self agonizing and second guessing my dials, with Sasse around I relax and get a little more

I do the same, but bizarrely, i make better choices with saesee in the squad so i dont need to use his abilitiy. knowing hes there to change the dial im more relaxed and make better choices.

Pretty much, like I said. I tend to second guess my self and talk my self out of good decisions. It oddly does not happen with Sasse in the squad. Just the knowledge that an oops is fixable calms the mind.